April 22, 2016
New London, N.C. – Chris Petefish fired a 3-under-par 69 Friday, and Georgia Tech made a solid start with a 1-under-par 287 and is tied for third place after the opening round of the 53rd Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship.
Saturday’s second round begins at 8:30 a.m., with the Yellow Jackets beginning their round at 10:30 a.m. paired with Duke and Virginia. Fans can watch live streaming of the round beginning at 3 p.m. on ESPN3.
TECH LINEUP – Sophomore Chris Petefish (Danville, Calif.) turned in his best round of the year, and his best in four trips around the Old North State Club, despite bogeying two of his first three holes. He played the remaining holes in 4-under-par with no bogeys and is in a tie for fifth place after 18 holes.
Sophomore Jacob Joiner (Leesburg, Ga.), the only one of the five competing Yellow Jackets not to have played a competitive round on the course, shot a solid 1-under-par 71, while sophomore James Clark (Columbus, Ga.) chipped in with a 73 (two bogeys, one birdie) and junior Vincent Whaley (McKinney, Texas) a 74 (one birdie, one bogey, one double bogey).
Michael Hines (Acworth, Ga.), playing his first ACC Championship round since 2013, shot 76 despite opening his round with two birdies and closing it with two more.
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Clemson, which last won an ACC title in 2004, and Wake Forest, which last won in 1989, built a significant cushion on the rest of the field Friday, with the 12th-ranked Tigers posting a 15-under-par 273 and the 11th-ranked Demon Deacons an 11-under 277. Their players occupy five of the top seven spots on the individual leaderboard, with four Clemson players and three Wake player breaking par.
Tech, No. 7 Wake Forest, No. 20 Duke, No. 24 Virginia and Louisville are all tied at 287, 10 strokes behind Wake Forest.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Wake’s Paul McBride shot 6-under-par 66 and grabbed the first-round lead over Clemson teammates Stephen Behr and Bryson Nimmer (67). The Deacons’ Davis Womble has fourth place to himself after a 68 (-4), while Petefish, Clemson’s Austin Langdale and Duke’s Jake Shuman are tied for fifth after carding 3-under 69s.
Five players are tied for eighth place at 70 (-2), with Tech’s Jacob Joiner in another five-way tie for 13th at 71.
COACH Bruce Heppler SAYS – “It was pretty nasty out there early, but our guys hung in there for the most part, and we’re glad to get in the clubhouse before the weather delay in the afternoon. As I’ve said before, we’re better than the way we’ve played most of the spring. We had some good rounds today, but we need four to make a run at this.”
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The ACC Championship is being contested over 54 holes, with the second and third rounds set for Saturday and Sunday. It is being played for the 15th straight year and for the 20th time overall at the Old North State Club, a 7,102-yard, par 72 layout in adjacent to Badin Lake in New London, N.C.
Six of the 12 teams competing in the conference championship appear in the most recent Golfstat top 25 – Florida State (7), Wake Forest (11), Clemson (12), Duke (20), Virginia (24) and North Carolina (25). Others in the top 50 include NC State (34) and Georgia Tech (48). Virginia Tech is No. 121, and Notre Dame is No. 138.
